The latest news affecting umbrella companies in the UK. Featuring HMRC, the Agency Workers Directive, the 2003 Agency Regulations, and IR35.
For one week this month, a team of contractors working with umbrella companies are banding together to promote freelancing in the UK with the new ‘7 Days in June’ project, it was recently reported.
New ‘7 Days in June’ project to promote freelancing in UK » Read the full story
Contractors with specialised manufacturing and green technology expertise could soon reap the benefits of a newly-approved plan to construct a wind turbine factory on the Isle of Sheppey, it was recently rported.
New turbine factory could bring opportunity for contractors » Read the full story
A recent survey reports that umbrella companies and recruitment firms specialising in providing skilled technical workers to companies in need have only been able to fill four out of every five vacancies, leaving around 20 per cent of positions unfilled due to permanent worker and freelancer shortages in the media, accountancy, finance, interim management, engineering, and IT sectors.
20% of IT worker positions remain unfilled due to shortages » Read the full story
A webinar hosted last month by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation in order to gauge the impact on how workers and employers were approaching Agency Workers Regulations has borne fruit, with the more than 140 participants chiming in on issues such as managing information requests and calculating holiday entitlements.
REC webinar reveals impact of Agency Workers Regulations » Read the full story
While private sector firms are hiring temporary staff with highly specialised technical skills, the public sector’s contractor hiring rate has slipped by nearly 15 per cent, according to a recent quarterly report from procurement firm Comensura.
Public sector freelancer hiring rate down by 15% » Read the full story
Thanks to a GrowthAccelerator, new business initiative recently unveiled by Vince Cable, £200 million in funding will soon be made available for the brightest businesses in the UK – and industry experts say that contractors that work with umbrella companies are in an excellent position to benefit from the new, positive attention.
Government announces £200m in funding for brightest UK businesses » Read the full story
The taxman is still struggling to determine what constitutes adequate paperwork for a business or self-employed individual to comply with the Business Records Checks programme.
Taxman to make pre-screening business record checks by phone » Read the full story
Whilst some of us were hoping to have seen the end of the doom and gloom that has been dogging us for the last few years, it will be at least another three years before the British high street starts to recover from the recession and even then the prospects of a full recovery before the end of the decade are not looking good.
It’s going to be a long, slow recovery for the retail sector » Read the full story
The government recently launched the GrowthAccelerator scheme to help as many as 26,000 of the country’s brightest small businesses.
Small businesses might benefit from GrowthAccelerator » Read the full story
After the recent revelations that a lot of Government contractors were avoiding tax by paying themselves through a personal service company, the Treasury has announced that all contractors earning more than £220 a day will have to pay the correct tax if they have been in a department for longer than 6 months.
Is the government forcing contractors into umbrella companies? » Read the full story
Small business owners and self-employed individuals are increasingly turning to apps when they want accountancy and tax advice.
Do contractors turn to their iPad for tax advice? » Read the full story
Contractors may be interested to learn that companies are increasingly turning their backs on outsourcing and keeping the work in the UK instead.
Are companies turning their backs on outsourcing? » Read the full story
Why do people lie on their CVs? Is it to embellish their skills, educational qualifications or work experience, or do they have another motive?
Lying on your CV could backfire spectacularly » Read the full story
Are more people in the UK turning to self-employment out of necessity rather than choice? This debate has been raging over the last few months and the news that self-employment has reached an all time high will no doubt start people talking again.
Why are more people turning to self-employment? » Read the full story
APSCo’s latest Monthly Trends analysis contained some reasonably encouraging news for umbrella company contractors.
Temporary jobs market continues to perform well » Read the full story
IT contractors take note; office workers find problems such as emails and internet failures among the most stressful issues they face on a regular basis.
Should umbrella company IT contractors be upping their game? » Read the full story
